1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to audio/video conferencing, and, in particular, to systems for real-time audio, video, and data conferencing in windowed environments on personal computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is desirable to provide real-time audio, video, and data conferencing between personal computer (PC) systems operating in windowed environments such as those provided by versions of Microsoft(copyright) Windows(trademark) operating system. There are difficulties, however, with providing real-time conferencing in non-real-time windowed environments.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages and drawbacks of the known art and to provide real-time audio, video, and data conferencing between PC systems operating in non-real-time windowed environments.
It is a particular object of the present invention to provide real-time audio, video, and data conferencing between PC systems operating under a Microsoft(copyright) Windows(trademark) operating system.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment which follows.
The present invention comprises a computer-implemented process and a computer-based subsystem for processing audio signals. According to a preferred embodiment, the subsystem comprises an application programming interface (API) and an audio task. The API is implemented on a general-purpose host processor of a computer system and the audio task is implemented on a digital signal processor of the computer system. The API receives one or more functions calls from an application to control the play of an audio file, where the application is implemented on the general-purpose host processor and the audio file is stored in a storage device of the computer system. The API translates the function calls into one or more host-to-board messages and transmits the host-to-board messages to the audio task. The audio task plays the audio file based on the host-to-board messages received from the API at a higher priority than one or more other audio files.